With the Amazon Echo set to be one of the most popular gifts this Christmas season and in light of predictions that it will rake in over £11 billion in revenues by 2020 (http://uk.businessinsider.com/amazon-echo-alexa-add-11-billion-in-revenue-by-2020-2016-9?r=US&IR=T), Paul Bischoff, privacy advocate for Comparitech.com has put together his advice on how to make sure your privacy is better protected when using the device and others like it, including Google Hom
For example, he writes about how to use the Echo to its fullest potential, you'll have to give up some privacy. There's no way around it. But you can still make it safer and less 1984-ish with a few easy steps. The general rule is don't say anything around your Echo that you wouldn't say in public:
Hit the Mute button on top of the device when it's not in use. This will turn off the "always listening" feature so it cannot be activated until you physically unmute it.
Delete old recordings. You can use a web-based dashboard on Amazon's "Manage my device" page to wipe your history clean or just delete individual queries. Note that doing so can prevent the Echo from "learning" and result in less useful or accurate results in the future.
Don't link important accounts to your Echo. It might be tempting to be able to ask Alexa how much money you have left in your checking account, but it's best to keep that sort of activity off a device that anyone can activate. Comment threads are already full of anecdotes about kids ordering candy and toys online without their parents' knowledge. If it involves money or something else important, keep it off the Echo.
Configure Alexa to give an "end of request" tone to let you know when it's stopped listening.
Will this prevent Amazon from collecting and analyzing tons of personal information about you and then handing that data over to third parties? Not a chance. That's the price you pay for convenience. But it does make you more difficult to profile for Amazon and any unknown third parties.